Chrysalis woke up in the middle of the night on the kitchen floor with a blanket draped over her. Hesitantly, she nudged it off and stood up, noticing that none of the Apple family seemed to be up right now.
Escape, she told herself. There is always love elsewhere. You don't need friendship.
She took one step toward the door, then another. Then she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She recognized them as belonging to the nymph - filly - Apple Bloom, stumbling downstairs while still half-asleep.
Hastily, Chrysalis went to the sink and pretended to be washing dishes. Apple Bloom dragged herself to a chair and sat at the kitchen table, head drooping.
"Applejack? Is that you?"
"Uh - yeah, sugarcube," Chrysalis said, faking Applejack's voice.
"Couldja get me some apple juice please?"
"Of course." She took some apple juice out of the refrigerator and poured it into a glass. While Apple Bloom was looking the other direction, she transformed into Applejack and handed her the glass.
"Why are you up so early, Apple Bloom?" Chrysalis asked in what she hoped was a passable imitation of Applejack's "stern mother voice."
"Bad dream," the filly mumbled. "Princess Luna came and fought it off, but then she left and it got worse and then I woke up."
"What was the dream about?"
"Ma and Pa were tellin' me how proud they were about my cutie mark," the filly briefly glanced down at her flank, "and then some fillies started makin' fun of me for not havin' parents. They were more shadows and voices than fillies, but Luna came and showed me that they were really just my insecurities talkin'. Then she left to help another pony, and the fillies started up again. They told me my cutie mark was useless and I was useless and-"
Chrysalis wrapped her front hooves around the filly's neck and nuzzled against her ear. "It's alright, Apple Bloom. It was just a dream."
"I know. But now I'm scared to go back to sleep in case they say more mean things."
"Well, Ah guess you can stay up. You'll be tired in the morning, though."
"Hey, doesn't Chrysalis usually sleep on the floor here? Where is she?"
Qwa'ti. The curse word flashed in her head. "She's outside buckin' apples."
"No, she ain't. C'mon, Chryssie, don'cha think I woulda heard that?"
"Well done." Chrysalis returned to her normal self. Apple Bloom deflated a little bit, perhaps thinking that the hug and reassurance was just a trick to gain love. Which it definitely wasn't. Probably not. Okay, maybe it was, just a tiny little bit. But only a little.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Chrysalis asked her.
"No."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"You could talk to me. And next time, please don't fake being Applejack."
"Alright. What do you want to talk about?"
The little yellow filly sighed. "Do you know what it's like to not have parents?"
"Hmm. Well, I never really knew my father. But I had my mother, so I was luckier than most of the lings there. My mother was the queen, the mother of all the changelings."
"Is she really everyone's mother?"
"No... Family is different in the hive, Apple Bloom. Do you know how baby ponies are born?"
"They're born alive, right?"
"Yes. But changelings are hatched from eggs."
"Like chickens?"
"No, not like chickens!" There was an awkward pause. "Okay, yeah, kind of like chickens. I guess. But better, because we're way cooler and smarter than chickens. Anyway, the eggs are all put in one big room and cared for by a few lings until they hatch. Then they are raised by the entire hive. The only parent they really know is the queen, although they call everyling ento, which means parental figure. A rough Equestrian translation might be 'nurse.'"
"Does that make you everyp- everyling's ento?"
Chrysalis chuckled. "Ah, no. The changeling word for me is kuyan, which literally translates to Great Mother. The translation of Queen is far less accurate, but easier for ponies to understand."
"But don't you lose some of the spirit of what it means to be a kuyan? By calling you Queen, we're losing the motherly, caring aspect of the word. Which isn't good, because the ponies assume that you're evil and controlling."
"I - wha? I never thought of it until you said that, but you're right. You're quite smart, Apple Bloom."
The filly blushed. "Aw, shucks. I think you're a good kuyan." She picked up her glass of apple juice and drained it. Chrysalis took it from her and placed it in the sink.
"Thank you, Apple Bloom. That means... that means a lot to me. Not that it does much good right now..." Chrysalis sighed. In her excitement, the filly missed the sigh and blurted, "Tell me more. Do little changeling fillies get cutie marks? Do they worry about their cutie marks?"
"Well, apparently we're ponies, so I guess they should get cutie marks. They're called nymphs, by the way, and the really young ones, equivalent to your babies, are called hatchlings. But I've never seen a changeling with a cutie mark in my lifetime, though I suppose it's possible. I can safely say that no lings in my hive have cutie marks."
Suddenly, Apple Bloom's eyes were wide open. "A whole hive of changelings without cutie marks? You have to take the Cutie Mark Crusaders there, right now! Think how many ponies we could help!" Her eyes were shining.
"I don't really think-" Chrysalis began. Apple Bloom cut her off with a pouty face so adorable that even the kuyan of the changelings couldn't resist. The faces of her children flashed before her. This was the perfect excuse to get back to them. She looked back at the filly in front of her and finally submitted. "Alright."
"YAY!"